Before the dragging, the attackers beat Byrd severely with a wooden bat, fracturing his eye sockets and ribs.[1]
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On the morning of June 7, 1998, James Byrd Jr. walked along a road in Jasper, Texas. He was 49 years old, a well-known figure in this small East Texas town, and he was looking for a ride home. Three white men in a pickup truck offered him one. It was a decision that would cost him his life.
Byrd had been at a party the night before. By the early morning hours, he was walking alone on a dark stretch of road when King, Brewer, and Berry pulled alongside him. They said they would take him where he needed to go. Instead, they drove him to a remote, wooded area where the attack began.
The three men beat Byrd severely. According to evidence presented at their trials, King and Brewer fractured his eye sockets and ribs, striking him with a wooden bat. Berry was present but played a lesser role. When the beating was done, the men chained Byrd's ankles to the back of their pickup truck and dragged him along the winding rural road — for nearly three miles.
